Dark patterns… sounds like the subtitle of a new Star Wars prequel. In fact, it describes a toolbox of tricks used by apps and websites to get us to spend more, hand over our data, sign up for subscriptions and overpay for products – without us even realising it.
The term was coined by Harry Brignull, a British expert in online “user experience” (or UX) which refers to how customers interact with a product, service, or system.
In 2010, Brignull founded Darkpatterns.org to educate consumers about the manipulative tactics being adopted in the field of UX, from Roach Motels to Confirmshaming.
Have no idea what I’m talking about? A Roach Motel, named after a brand of American pest control, is a product or service that’s easy to get into, far harder to escape.
Amazon Prime is a prime Roach Motel. When you buy a product from the retail giant, it automatically signs you up for a 30-day free trial of its premium service, offering free delivery, unless you find the small blue text on the order page that says “Order without Prime. Decline Premium Delivery.”
This option is not presented as a conventional button, tricking you into thinking it’s not really an option at all.
Meanwhile, cancelling the subscription (which costs £7.99 a month after the free trial) requires you to navigate a visual brainteaser that almost belongs in The Crystal Maze. You half expect Richard O’Brien to pop up in a fur coat and say: “Ah, but are you SURE that’s the correct cancellation button? Choose wisely!”
Confirmshaming is when users are guilt-tripped into signing up for or keeping a service. Again, Amazon has mastered this technique. If you want to decline a particular add-on or subscription, you need to click buttons that say “No, I don’t want to save £X” or “I do not want my benefits.” It may as well add “…because I’m a stupid loser.”
Other dark patterns sound more familiar: hidden costs that appear only at the checkout, trick questions that make you accidentally sign up for spam, the supermarkets which don’t show the price per weight on packaged items online, preventing price comparison.
More on Internet Safety
UX isn’t inherently bad. But much like the force in Star Wars, things get messy when it crosses over to the dark side. That’s when it can be used to ruthlessly exploit our neural weaknesses.
The Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman famously identified two different systems that drive our thinking. One is fast, intuitive, and emotional. The other is slow, more deliberative, and logical. You don’t have to be a Princeton professor to work out which mindset is necessary for good financial decisions.
Yet think about how we behave online these days. Are we alert, engaged, analysing every detail, taking time to think things through? Hell no. We’re only human. We go on autopilot, use mental shortcuts, gloss over the details and act impulsively. We’re also likely to be multi-tasking, for instance texting a friend while booking a holiday.
Neuroscientists have discovered a major drop in our cognitive abilities when we flit between different tasks, calling it the “switch-cost effect.” So, our already fallible thinking is even more impaired by the attention-stealing nature of smartphone capitalism.
Add to this the captive market offered up to online businesses during Covid, and it’s obvious why it’s in their interests to identify our behavioural biases and design various traps for us to stumble into.
Moreover, they can tweak their layout, algorithms and “call to action” nudges, then monitor the sales impact. This kind of real-time adaptability means big business often understands our decision-making better than we do.
Worryingly, some of the best practitioners of “dark patterns” today are easy credit providers, gambling firms and credit reference agencies.
Increasingly, their inducements appear in places or forms we don’t expect. For instance, why should a shopper be automatically signed up to a buy now pay later agreement? Why did I keep receiving emails from a credit reference agency after I cancelled my free trial recently, offering me no way to unsubscribe, with alarmist subject lines about the security of my personal information?
Gemma Byrne, senior policy researcher at Citizens Advice, has highlighted the dangers of “financial quicksand”, which can trap customers in debt and overspending. She has called for creative and agile regulation. For instance, stake limits could become the default setting on betting sites, and gamblers could be allowed to close their account in one click.
The trouble is that our regulators aren’t exactly famed for their creativity and agility. Besides, businesses and UX designers on the dark side will always have more time, resources, and incentives to game the system – and our vulnerable psyches.
My advice is get informed, take your time when shopping online and channel your inner cool customer. Because who wants to wind up in a Roach Motel?